Boy with henna tattoo: How Australian Peter Truong groomed son to be exploited by global paedophile network

An Australian man formerly at the centre of a global child exploitation ring has told the ABC he too is a victim of the same network of men.

But Four Corners has revealed 36-year-old Peter Truong was linked to offenders around the world and was part of a much larger child exploitation conspiracy operating online and in secret for almost two decades.

Truong and his American partner Mark Newton were arrested and charged in February 2012 over their involvement in a child exploitation conspiracy involving their then six-year-old son.

Both pleaded guilty after police discovered videos showing their son being sexually abused by two American men: 35-year-old Jason Bettuo, a junior tennis coach from Michigan, and 38-year-old John Rex Powell, an attorney from Florida.

In 2013 Newton was sentenced to 40 years for his role, while Truong received a 10-year reduction, serving 30 years as a result of his decision to cooperate with investigators.

Four Corners has exposed Truong's links to a much bigger online paedophile network discovered by authorities in the US. Truong communicated with the network from his home in Queensland.

The network was called Tail of the Dragon and at the time it was discovered by authorities in 2011, it had about 20 core members located around the world including in the UK, Lebanon, the US and Mexico.

All had concealed their identities using multiple screen names and aliases. There was an Australian in the group, an early member using the alias RedRover. It was Truong.

Logs from the chat room seen by Four Corners reveal Truong was an active member up until he acquired a child of his own, Adam, in 2005.

After this time, Truong maintained communication with an even more private group of men around the world, sharing and trafficking his son with a network of child sex abusers who called themselves Boy Lovers.

Chat logs also obtained by Four Corners show how men in his network discussed how to acquire children of their own.

Tail of the Dragon remained undetected for almost 20 years. Protected by walls of encryption and security software, members of the group assiduously worked to thwart law enforcement and evade detention, switching internet channels frequently, changing aliases and chat room names.

The group utilised peer-to-peer (P2P) networking and FTP transferring online to trade millions of images of boys being abused. Members also worked to produce fresh child pornography collections which were highly prized by paedophiles.

Truong's link to Tail of the Dragon was revealed following a chance discovery by Brian Bone, an inspector with the United States Postal Inspection Service based in Washington, DC.

The footage was secretly recorded by Casper and uploaded to the internet for like-minded men to watch and collect.

During proffer sessions with police, Casper revealed he was a member of a secret internet relay chat group called Tail of the Dragon and began providing inspectors with several names behind the aliases.

The key that unlocked the conspiracy and led to the discovery of Adam was a visual clue contained in a private folder of another Tail of the Dragon member, 44-year-old Thomas Vaughn in Anderson, Indiana.

Inside a folder called privbeav were images of a young boy, about five years old, being sexually abused by an adult male. But their faces had been cropped out.

Investigators had no idea who the offender was, nor the young boy. The only visual clue to go on: the boy had a henna tattoo on his chest and a mole on his stomach.

Eventually, these images would be matched with family videos and photos obtained by Taskforce Argos at Queensland Police.

Paedophiles' online world

Detective Inspector Jon Rouse of Taskforce Argos says Truong was a savvy online operator with a sophisticated knowledge of encryption and security software.

"These guys knew their craft," he said.

"You know, they were technically capable men. They knew what they were doing online. They knew how to use the internet. They'd been using the internet for a very long time. They knew how to protect themselves. They maintained their communications largely within their identified group of safety."

Truong did not operate alone. His network included IT professionals and encryption gurus.

Detective Inspector Jon Rouse says that in the modern world of child pornography and child exploitation rings, it takes a network to beat a network.

"We don't play a short game in this unit," he said.

"We think years in our investigations. We don't think weeks. This investigation has spanned years and it has brought down a network. We're working on a case now that will bring down a network, but it takes time, dedication, and it takes that network, that global reach that we've managed to maintain now for 13 years, to make those things happen."

Paedophiles' network revealed

In the months before Truong and Newton left their Cairns home for another extended international holiday with their adopted son Adam in 2011, at least two key figures in their global network had been arrested by police and charged with child sex offences.

But the conspiracy involving Truong and Newton was yet to be uncovered.

In July 2011, Edward De Sear, then a senior partner at top law firm Allen & Overy in New York, was arrested and charged with distributing child pornography.

Married with children, De Sear traded thousands of extreme and often violent child pornography videos and images using a P2P network.

Four Corners has revealed that De Sear and Truong were closely connected online. According to chat logs and email excerpts obtained by the program, Truong and De Sear were avid traders of child pornography.

Their online communications also show that Truong personally arranged for De Sear to access Adam for sex on multiple occasions in Australia, America, and in Brussels, from when Adam was as young as four years old.

Police allege De Sear paid for Truong, Newton and Adam's travel expenses. Four Corners has obtained videos and photographs documenting a trip allegedly funded by De Sear to New York, where Adam watches The Lion King musical on Broadway and has lunch at a rotating high-rise restaurant.

Adam is later photographed sitting on De Sear's lap while De Sear drinks a martini. In exchange for paying travel expenses and entertaining Truong and Newton, De Sear was given Adam for sex.

Four Corners has discovered that Adam was also given to several men for sex in the months before he was removed from Truong and Newton's custody in October 2011.

This included a swap session in Germany with a convicted sex offender in November 2010, and a visit to Powell for sex in the same month.

In March 2011 Adam was handed over to sex offender Mark Lawless, 35, from Mississippi, Texas; he was then sent to Powell and Bettuo in April 2011, and to De Sear in Brussels in June 2011.

The acts were often filmed on high definition camera and shared within their network.

The following month, in July 2011, De Sear was arrested and charged with child pornography offences. But his connection to Adam was yet to be discovered.

Truong and Newton’s boy modelling business

Four Corners has learnt that Truong and Newton had access to boys through their child modelling business.

An analysis of the contents of their hard drives reveals hundreds of images and modelling photos of young boys in Australia and across the world.

If we did nothing else with this little boy, at least we stopped it in its tracks. I can't speculate over what his life is going to be like from here, but the sexual abuse has ended and the majority of the men that perpetuated it that that we've identified are in custody.

Detective Inspector Jon Rouse

Newton and Truong also travelled the world obsessively photographing themselves with boys. There are series of photographs with boys in Europe, Asia and America. There are photos of boys playing in sport matches, at swimming pools, in playgrounds and often in private modelling sessions.

Victim identification specialist Paul Griffiths of Taskforce Argos trawled through Truong and Newton's computer systems and hard drives, creating a timeline of their life together.

"One of the big problems we had was that a large amount of what was seized was encrypted and we couldn't access it, but one drive in particular wasn't encrypted," he said.

"I think the drive was about 1.5 terabytes in size, and from memory on that drive there's around about 25,000 photographs and about 65 hours of video footage.

"I just think the lengths that they must have gone to, the planning that was involved, the amount of secrecy, the deception, deceiving their own family, friends, neighbours, into believing that everything that was happening was just a legitimate scenario."

Their collection was highly prized and extremely valuable in the Man Boy Love community.

"Quite powerful quite clearly in terms of who they would share their boy with and where they would travel to, how they picked where they went and how, who they shared him with," he said.

"If we did nothing else with this little boy, at least we stopped it in its tracks. I can't speculate over what his life is going to be like from here, but the sexual abuse has ended and the majority of the men that perpetuated it that we've identified are in custody."

Truong and Newton’s public campaign claiming discrimination

After being detained in America in October 2011, Newton and Truong were released without being charged due to insufficient evidence against them proving they were sexually abusing Adam.

Their hard drives were encrypted and Truong and Newton refused to cooperate with police.

Detective Inspector Jon Rouse told Four Corners that Truong and Newton were confident they would never get caught.

"What we know about that network and what we know about networks of that type is that their propensity to provide and assist law enforcement in their investigations is basically nil," he said.

"So if you don't have the goods you're not going to get anything from them. We had encrypted material, we had no disclosures, we had other members of the network that have been arrested at that point in time, we had remote evidence that obviously identifies commission of a crime, but we don't have anything direct from either of them or in a manner that we could present it to a court of law."

It was disgusting that they were willing to manipulate people close to them to try and get them on board, but that was them. They were manipulators; they were expert at it.

Detective Sergeant Ian Wells

In Los Angeles, Truong and Newton quickly embarked on a public campaign to clear their names and get their son back. Adam was in protective custody, deemed to be a child at risk.

Truong and Newton made emotional pleas to family and friends in Australia for help, claiming they were being discriminated against based on their sexuality. Their story was picked up by the media.

Detective Inspector Rouse has told Four Corners that Truong and Newton's claim of discrimination is offensive and completely unfounded.

"This has never, ever, ever been about your gender or your sexual preference in terms of consenting adults and what they do," he said.

"We were acting in the direct interests of a young boy that we [believed] had been sexually abused. If they'd been a male and female partner we would have done exactly the same things that we did and we did nothing wrong."

"For them to mount a media campaign and portray to their friends and neighbours and family that they're innocent individuals, it was sad," he said.

"It was disgusting that they were willing to manipulate people close to them to try and get them on board, but that was them. They were manipulators; they were expert at it."

The 'double life' of Truong and Newton

Before they were arrested in February 2012, Truong and Newton lived a charmed life in a beachside suburb in tropical Cairns.

Friends and locals who knew them repeatedly told Four Corners that Truong and Newton were loving, devoted parents to their son, and that there was never any sign something was wrong.

But next door neighbours John and Val Pilbin said Truong and Newton preferred to socialise with people who had young children.

Ms Pilbin says Truong was always trying to please his neighbours.

"For me he was just full on, over the top, pushy in a sense," she said.

"Trying to impress all the time that he wanted people to be friendly with him, put himself out there and just want people to like him and making a point that 'I'm a good person' type of thing."

We were conned. We were conned into believing that they were what they weren't. We were, everybody around here, was all set up and that's what he went round to make sure that they got everybody on side.

Neighbour Val Pilbin

Ms Pilbin told Four Corners she questioned how Truong and Newton managed to afford frequent and expensive international travel with their young son when they did not appear to work.

"They travelled more than what they were home," she said.

"They usually were at home six to eight weeks at a time and usually gone eight to 12 weeks at a time. So that made us think, 'where would you get the money to keep travelling like that?' Normal people don't have the money."

Ms Pilbin says Truong told her that he and Newton worked in IT and that they travelled to America for work.

"When they went away he told me they had to go overseas," she said.

"He says somebody has to work, somebody has to earn the money around here. He says I've got a job over in America so we're going away for six weeks or something. He said that's how it pays the bills."

Four Corners was told that Truong and Newton were quiet neighbours and that their son Adam was a beautiful, polite and kind boy.

Ms Pilbin says the community feels betrayed by Truong.

"We were conned," she says. "We were conned into believing that they were what they weren't. We were, everybody around here, was all set up and that's what he went round to make sure that they got everybody on side."

Investigations are ongoing in Australia

Taskforce Argos has confirmed to Four Corners that investigations are continuing into Truong and Newton's network, including more possible offenders and victims in Australia.

Our investigation won’t finish until we've satisfied ourselves that every single person that had any involvement with that little boy has been located and if we can identify that an offence has been committed, they'll be prosecuted.

Detective Inspector Jon Rouse

Four Corners can reveal that Truong and Newton shared their home with Adam with another man, a 29-year-old male.

He was living with the pair and Adam in Cairns and was travelling and staying with them in America when Truong and Newton were first detained in October 2011.

When Adam was removed from Truong and Newton's custody, he was being driven to Santa Monica pier by the male friend.

The man was a director of a childcare centre at the time. He has since been charged by Queensland police with using Skype to allegedly distribute child pornography. Taskforce Argos has told Four Corners the investigation into his alleged activities is continuing.

Detective Inspector Rouse says Taskforce Argos will not rest until every offender has been identified.

"Our investigation won't finish until we've satisfied ourselves that every single person that had any involvement with that little boy has been located and if we can identify that an offence has been committed, they'll be prosecuted," he said.

"We have a number of investigative leads that we're currently following up.

"I'm not going to speculate on where those potential leads may lead us, but the investigation hasn't finished, and while I'm here it won't finish until we're satisfied that we've done our job."